Abortion is a highly controversial topics, everyone has an opinion on it, whether you are pro life, pro-choice, or even Judis

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Introduction

Examine and comment on a philosophical approach to the moral and religious issues raised by the practice of abortion. Abortion is a highly controversial topic, everyone has an opinion on it, whether you are pro life, pro-choice, or even Judis Jarvis Thompson. Abortion is very controversial because opinions have changed some women value their career more than having a child, or they feel sex is more about enjoyment rather than passing on the family genes, but there are still people that feel that a foetus is a potential life and killing it is just the same as murder. Therefore having an abortion is the same as murder. If we look at the moral perspectives on abortion you have two very different ends of the scale. One being pro life where the baby's life is valued and pro choice, where the women's decision is valued for whatever reason she chooses to have an abortion. If we look at pro life views we know that they are opposed to the deliberate ending of any innocent's life from the first moment of its existence, conception. It is scientifically established that from the moment of conception, when a single-cell embryo is created, a new human being and or organism exists, a potential life has been created. To terminate the life of this individual is fundamentally unjust and discriminatory. To deprive an entity of his/her life, on the basis of qualities such as size or level of development is to contend that it is these qualities which give the entity the right to life. Pro life believers take the position that every human being has an inherent right to life, by virtue of being human: no-one has the right to deliberately bring about the death of an innocent human being. If you were to kill a child it would be considered murder, they believe that killing a foetus is the exact same thing, as a foetus is just the beginning of a child. ...read more.

Middle

Now if we look at a religious viewpoint we can see that religion is generally against abortion as they believe that abortion in its simplest form is just murder, it's the taking of an innocents life. Different religions have slightly different views. For example Islam states that under no circumstances should abortion be allowed but with Christianity it could be interpreted that abortion is allowed but before the foetus has a soul. If we look closer at Christianity we already know that they have mainly the same belief system where they both generally believe in the sanctity of life, sanctity means 'the quality of being sacred or holy.' So the sanctity of life must mean that every human life is sacred so the this means that every human life and every potential human life is scared and cannot be taken lightly therefore all killing is wrong Christians often talk of human life as being sacred, they refer to the sanctity of life not only when talking about abortion but when considering issues such as abortion, euthanasia, embryo research, the care of disabled or the elderly. They believe there is something special or holy about human life. Every human, Christians believe, is special to God. In The Bible, Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 God is described as creating the first humans. The Bible says, ' So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.' As we know god did not only create the Humans we are part of the whole universe but we they do believe that they are the only part of God's creation described as being in the image of God. Christians don't believe we look like God. They believe being in the image of God means that we are somehow special, we have something of God's nature in us, or at least the capacity to show God's nature. ...read more.

Conclusion

There is an imaginary case by Judis Jarvis Thompson called 'a defence of abortion' in which she argues the woman's case even though the foetus is considered a person. Within the case she asks you to imagine that you're in bed with a violinist and he has a rare blood type and a fatal kidney aliment, and you are the only matching blood type. As the violinist is such a valuable asset to the musical world the musical association kidnap you and 'plug' you into him. The doctors say that they never knew it would happen this way but now if we unplug you it would kill him but not to worry we can safely unplug you both after 9 months. This case raises many moral issues, what rights does the violinist have over your body? Do you have any duty to the violinist? How could you justify unplugging yourself? Do the conclusions above suggest women have a right to terminate a wanted and unwanted pregnancy? In conclusion we can see that there will always be differing moral views towards abortion as views are forever changing. The role of women in the modern world is also changing so where can we know draw the line with abortion in ancient times when religion came about it was forbidden but over time it has seen to become acceptable to the stage where an abortion can be had up to when a woman is twenty four weeks pregnant even though children are being born and surviving before this cut off date. So where do we stop? Where can we draw the line with abortion? And how far down the slippery slope can we fall before we even realise it. At the moment abortion has to permitted by two doctors eventually people will decide that this is now unnecessary, how long will it take for this to become one doctors consent. Or even none, how long will it take for walk in clinics to be established? Sana Gul ...read more.

Christianity is a very diverse religion it has many different churches that all interpret the Bible differently... The Church of England and the Church of Scotland teach that abortion is wrong except in extreme circumstances such as serious risk to the mother's health and life.

Kant's belief that we have immortal souls, leads us to the fact that morality leads to God. (Kant's rejection of theological arguments about God's existence does not mean that he does not have his own ideas about the after-life.) However, many Christians would question Kant's place for God, and as

*4 Bill Clinton, however, said 'I have always believed that the decision to have an abortion generally should be between a woman, her doctor, her conscience, and her God' *5 So now, I would like to explore the religious points of view.

Some passages from the bible could be used in a discussion about abortion. Most of the quotes are inevitably against abortion. Such as... 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you: I appointed you a prophet to the nations' Jeremiah

So in the example of rape, incest or deformity an abortion would be valid. However I feel some reasons such as "already having too many, not having enough money, career comes first" are ridiculous and a child should take priority over these factors as it is the parents fault for

This builds a sense a moral awareness within a person. The Bible is important text that teaches the Christian faith. It contains many teachings, but none of which are about abortion, as abortion was not heard of in the days the Bible was written.